


What Remains

by twoturtlesinabathtub



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Angst, F/M, Robin doesn’t actually die but the characters don’t know that, endgame spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-31 18:10:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19431376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twoturtlesinabathtub/pseuds/twoturtlesinabathtub
Summary: She was certain that she’d made the right choice. But those last moments...well, nothing could have prepared her or her husband for that sort of pain.





	What Remains

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This made me Suffer! I write about Henry a lot because he’s my favorite fictional character, _but_ there’s only one other man I’ve also felt the need to S-Support in Awakening. So this is my tribute to him.

He leaped from his horse and skidded to a halt before his fallen wife, kneeling and grasping one of her hands in both of his. Robin was trembling, her breath stuttering. Her very body was slowly slipping out of sight, fraying at the edges, dragging Frederick’s hope along with it. “Robin, no. No, _no_ —” Frederick kept repeating himself, stopping, gasping for breath in an attempt to compose himself. Failing.

Robin smiled up at him gently. The light in her eyes was dimming by the second. “You’re usually so composed....” she murmured. “I hardly recognize you.” After everything, she could still still find it in herself to joke.

Frederick pressed her hand to his cheek, and it was only then that he realized tears had begun to stream in rivulets down his face. Seeing her was becoming so _difficult_. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that crying was robbing seconds away from what may be his last moments seeing her.

“Don’t,” said Robin sluggishly, trying to wipe at his cheek. She was trembling too much, and accidentally ended up smearing the tears around instead. “Smile for me. You’re so handsome.”

For every second Robin stayed with him, Frederick could tell that she was in pain.

This wasn’t fair.

He wanted her to stay.

He was _selfish_.

Robin’s eyes kept fluttering shut, the time between their opening and closing growing more and more sluggish. “We won,” she whispered, and her triumphant little grin tore Fredrick’s beating heart from his chest.

“It doesn’t feel like it,” he whispered brokenly, unable to stop himself from saying it even though he knew that she wouldn’t like hearing it.

“It’s a win,” she replied quietly, so quietly that Frederick had to strain to hear it. “I think...I’ll be okay. It just feels like I’m falling asleep.” Her hand began to slide down his face, her strength gone.

Frederick stopped its progress downward, clasping her hand even more tightly. “You can’t. My love, you must not leave us. I beg of you, do not leave our son. Don’t leave _me_.”

“Son? ...Morgan....” Robin looked to her left and right, and her distressed expression ruthlessly sliced through her husband’s heart.

Frederick gave her an unsteady smile. “Would you like to see him?” Robin smiled back up at him and lightly tapped her fingers against his cheek. “I shall fetch him. Can you hold on until then?” Robin opened her mouth, but nothing came out. “Chrom will watch over you. Hold on, my sweet.” With a speed that belied the weight of his armor, Frederick stood and dashed down the dying dragon’s back, shouting Morgan’s name.

“Robin.” She looked to her right listlessly and saw Chrom kneel down at her side, wiping his face and then placing a hand on her dissipating shoulder. She couldn’t feel it. “Hang in there.”

She breathed in a small, shuddering gasp. “I dunno if...”

“Stay with us, Robin.” Chrom’s voice rose in volume. “Think of Frederick and Morgan. Stay for them.”

Robin’s eyes slid shut. “So tired.”

“Open your eyes.” She could hear Chrom’s voice shaking. She hoped that he wasn’t crying. It would’ve made her feel bad. “Please—open your eyes!”

Miraculously, she did. “I never...thanked you. Not really.”

“What?” Chrom asked, baffled.

“For taking me in.... You’re...why I met so many good—” Another pained gasp wracked her body. “Thank you, Chrom. For...everything....”

“Stay,” Chrom whispered. This sounded too much like a farewell. “Please.”

Robin went on as though she hadn’t heard him. “Tell the others...my last thoughts were of them....” Them. The Shepherds. Her brave little boy. And her darling, her dearest, her steadfast knight in shining armor. Robin wished that he were beside her. She laughed, a quiet sound that was clear as a bell. “May we meet again in a better life....” She looked skyward and sighed quietly, the last image in her mind Frederick’s warm eyes as her own slowly closed.

“Robin! No! Ah, gods, _no_!” 

Like that, Chrom’s hand was clutching at air. His arm stayed there, hovering over an empty space. It fell limply to his side when he heard a pair of frantic footsteps quickly approaching him from behind.

Frederick stood frozen, gripping his son’s hand tightly as he stared at the spot next to Chrom’s shaking form. “Chrom, where—she—”

The prince looked over his shoulder with red eyes, his face blotchy. “She’s gone,” he rasped.

Frederick was stone. “No.”

He couldn’t think of what else to say.

What else was there to say?

Nothing. Absolutely, unequivocally nothing.

“Mother....” Morgan crumpled in on himself, grasping at his father’s arm blindly. “Father, I—”

Frederick moved quickly, catching the boy as his knees buckled beneath him, as the corpse on which they stood buckled beneath them all.

And the dragon began to fall from the sky.

.~.~.

Frederick hadn’t the faintest idea how the Shepherds had made it back to the ground safely. His normally meticulous attention to detail had vanished. So many things had vanished.

His armor was thick, cold, yet Morgan clung to it anyway, his shoulders shaking and knees trembling.

Chrom stared at Frederick, but the knight didn’t dare look at him. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to bear the gaze that was no doubt full of pity. So, like a statue, he stood and supported Morgan and tried to will away all of the pitying stares that were no doubt trained on the two most important people their tactician had left behind.

He could be strong for her. For their son. He would be. Frederick ran his gauntleted fingers through his son’s hair as the young man sniffled against the unyielding metal plating covering his father’s chest. Frederick closed his eyes, listened to his and his son’s breathing, and tried not to think about how he’d never before felt so afraid.

He failed.

**Author's Note:**

> I knew that I had to write this when I went and read what the spouses would’ve said to the avatar if they hadn’t sacrificed themselves. Frederick’s line is, “Good wife, without you...my life lacks purpose. I wish to be with you until the end of my days.” It broke me lol. The idea of Frederick being forced into the position of witnessing two of the most important people in his life vying to sacrifice themselves is absolutely heartbreaking—especially when the avatar didn’t know that Chrom could’ve survived dealing the final blow. That shit hurted :v


End file.
